Sunday, January 29, 2017

Incoming Books: January

These have been sitting on my desk for a while, daring me to do something about them and help them get up on shelves where they belong. And, so, since this is a Sunday with nothing more important to do, I'll shove them through.

These are all comics of one kind or another, the product of two kinds of shopping: an online order from Midtown Comics (because they had one of their periodic "a bunch of stuff is 40% off" sales) and an in-person order at a local comics shop (because I had some stuff to trade in). And here's what I got:

The Bakers: Babies and Kittens by Kyle Baker -- I've been on something of a Kyle Baker kick lately, and he actually has a lot of stuff in print right now, making such a kick easy. (He said, implying others would be well served to have a kick of their own.) This is from about a decade ago, collecting a bunch of e strips about his then-young family.

Nexus Archives, Vol. 1 by Mike Baron and Steve Rude -- I've got four other volumes of this reprint series, but was missing the first one. Now, I could actually start a Nexus re-read, though I'll probably wait until I have more of it on the shelves. I remember this as being one of the comics series that did SF reasonably well -- more space opera than hard SF, definitely, but not stupid space opera like so many comics.

Ocean/Orbiter written by Warren Ellis and drawn by various people -- I don't think I've ever read much Ellis, and I always confuse him with Garth Ennis, anyway. But he did two SFnal comics stories in the last few years, and this collects both of them in one volume. I've been trying to find ways to read more SF recently -- I kinda burned out on it, and on epic fantasy, when I wasn't able to get another job in the field.

The Lindbergh Child by Rick Geary -- one of the middle volumes of his long-running series of small hardcovers about various famous murders of the past two hundred years.

Troll Bridge by Neil Gaiman and Collen Doran -- I didn't know this story of Gaiman's had been adapted into comics. Actually, to step back, when I think "Troll Bridge," short story by a British fantasy writer, I think of Terry Pratchett's version, and I have no memory of Gaiman's version at all. But what the hell, right?

The DC Universe by Neil Gaiman -- I am amused by the amazingly expansive title -- the whole universe! made by Gaiman! or perhaps owned by him! -- and I think this has some good stuff in it. And I bet it will replace a lot of things I had as floppy comics and lost in my 2011 flood.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess -- the big illustrated edition, which is the one to own. Before the flood, I had what I think was a signed-and-numbered limited edition of that, along with a just-prose first edition Stardust, but all physical objects are eventually destroyed.

Multiple Warheads by Brandon Graham -- the title is actually officially The Complete Multiple Warheads, Vol. 1, but that's not what it looks like, and there's no Vol. 2 yet, so phooey to that. I read this a couple of years back, and it was weird enough that I thought I should have my own copy.

Madwoman of the Sacred Heart by Alexandro Jodorowsky and Moebius -- This got good reviews, and I keep thinking I should try to get back into Moebius. (I had the whole Epic library of his stuff before the flood, plus what I think was all of the "Blueberry" stories written by Charlier that had been translated, and liked some of it better than others.)

100% by Paul Pope -- I like Pope's work, but I'm missing large portions of his output. (Was there ever a decent big collection of THB, for example?) Well, I've got this one now.

The Complete Maus by art spiegelman -- I had the two small hardcovers, bought back in the '80s as they came out, but, again, it flooded here in 2011. I don't know that I'm looking forward to re-reading such an emotionally demanding work, but I'd like to see if middle-aged me gets anything from it that college-aged me missed.

Love Fights, Vol. 2 by Andi Watson -- the back half of a very good story by Watson from the mid-aughts, when he was racking up an impressive run of very good stories. I'm still rebuilding my Watson shelf post-flood, like so many other things.

Museum of Mistakes by Julia Wertz -- this is the big, definitive collection of her "Fart Party" webcomics, coming well after she got tired and/or embarrassed of that old name. She's a real talent who I hope has a big breakthrough book in her -- and she's still horribly young, too. (But then, to me, a lot of people are horribly young.)

Wandering Star by Teri S.Wood -- a big fat collection of a good SF comic that Wood self-published back in the '80s and '90s and was never fully collected before. (I think I had one or two of the trade paperbacks, pre-flood, but they were old and battered even then.) My memory is that this was good comics, and respectable as SF, so I'm happy to take another look.

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